Week Two made Irish eyes very sad. But Welsh eyes leeked with joy, when the Wallabies didn’t quite manage to hop into the lead in the second half. Uruguay failed to repeat their magic from Week One. Otherwise, the results were more or less as expected.
Week Three’s biggest clash is looking like England v Argentina, although no doubt there will be some surprises in the other fixtures.
We’ve also got some Pro14 and that English Premiership Cup thingy to look forward to.
Exciting (?) rugby on the telly this week
Friday 4th October
| S Africa 49 – 3 Italy | 10:45 | ITV4 |
| Glasgow 21 – 25 Scarlets | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Leinster 53 – 5 Ospreys | 19:35 | Premiers Sports 2 / TG4 |
| Worcester 19 – 34 Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 5th October
| Australia 45 – 10 Uruguay | 06:15 | ITV |
| England 39 – 10 Argentina | 09:05 | ITV |
| Japan 38 – 19 Samoa | 11:30 | ITV |
| Kings 20 – 31 Munster | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Zebre 28 – 52 Dragons | 17:00 | Freesports |
| Cheetahs 63 – 26 Ulster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Cardiff 11 – 19 Edinburgh | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 / S4C |
| Connacht 41 – 5 Treviso | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 / TG4 |
Sunday 6th October
| New Zealand 71 – 9 Namibia | 05:45 | ITV |
| France 23 – 21 Tonga | 08:45 | ITV |
| Northampton 28 – 54 Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Tuesday 8th October
| South Africa 66 – 7 Canada | 11:15 | ITV4 |
Wednesday 9th October
| Argentina 47 – 17 USA | 05:45 | ITV4 |
| Scotland 61 – 0 Russia | 08:15 | ITV |
| Wales v Fiji | 10:45 | ITV/S4C |
Ovally Balls 
@Craigs
On the first tackle attempt he has used his forearm to smash the tackler away. His forearm hits the neck / shoulder of the tackler.
If the laws state that ‘leading with the forearm’ is not permitted, I can’t understand why this is allowed.
Here is a red card from 5 years ago:
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I disagree that he led with the forearm Pro. It’s clearly held against his body. He used it to push the tackler away after contact but that’s not the same as leading into the tackle. For the second tackle the force is clearly to his body. Again, not leading into the tackle with his arm or elbow.
In the video above the player is using (the nice, soft, fleshy) part of the elbow to push the Scottish player in the heid as contact is being made. Probably instinctively and probably unlucky too but it’s different imo and just about a red card.
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This is red under today’s laws.
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Grumble, grumble, tackle technique, grumble, grumble.
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BTW, good blurb Thaum.
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Thanks, Craigs. Not a patch on AoD’s efforts, I’m afraid!
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Cheers for the new blog, Thaum.
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Today’s win for Fiji meant that Group D became the first group since the 1987 RWC to have all its teams win at least one match in the tournament.
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TomP – that’s a fun fact.
Another one* is that I was, in childhood, fascinated by how words look on a page. I liked words that have no letters that go above or below the lower-case line, such as ‘someone’. Fiji has a different type of fascination, as it’s very balanced with its above-and-belowness; it almost looks like a Far Eastern character with its three dots in a row.
*Probably only in my own opinion
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Sinclair’s red card was rescinded.
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Wahey! Hello LADOAB. Where’ve you been hiding?
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Wahey! Hello LADOAB. Where’ve you been hiding?
Reverted back to lurking mode, Thaum.
It’s very much appreciated that you’ve re-incarnated the blog, by the way.
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Well, stop lurking and give us your opinions. Obviously we need a Canadian’s thoughts on the campaign so far, if that isn’t too painful a subject.
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Anyone watching best RWC tries on ITV4? A lovely trip down memory lane with some great contributions from POC as a talking head. Plenty of the 99 France team in there
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Arf. ‘Pro has been like a dog on a bone today, like rubbing a lamp…
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Iks – or summat….
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Seems the angle of the elbow is quite important in all this.
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Great to see you again LADOAB!
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Ladoab – hey mate. It was the nicest part of the elbow to give. Pretty sure the aim is to cover the hard, pointy bit on the other side.
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Well, stop lurking and give us your opinions.
The Squidge video that Refit posted earlier about Rugby Canada pretty much says it all. The five or so players that are the stars on the team can’t do much with Jones’ plans.
The forwards play lighter than they are physically; they have difficulty against just about any other pack. (Although they did surprise me in their tune-up match against the U.S.)
Surprisingly, Rugby Canada managed to acquire the services of a couple of coaches to deal with Canada’s weaknesses. (I can’t remember their names off the top of my head, although I remember laughing about the timing of it.)
I thought that Canada would play better against Italy, and allow more tries against New Zealand. I don’t think that South Africa will put as many points on the board as NZ, and Canada will throw away a fourth quarter lead, as they do, against Namibia.
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Great to see you again LADOAB!
Good to see you as well, Refit. I’ve been reading your excellent play-by-plays as always.
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@Craigs
Things were a bit different back in the day, I guess.
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Was Gethin #1? If not, it’s the shaft of all shafts.
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@LADOAB – thought Canada didn’t make the most of their chances against Italy. Should have had three or four tries really. I know their tackling was hopeless in the first twenty minutes, but after that they didn’t do too badly.
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@CMW
I missed the first few scores. And then the weather was poor, so I was unable to watch much of the last part of the game. I only saw the middle 50 minutes or so.
The butterfingers botched possible try was one of the first plays I saw.
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I’m going to stick my neck out and go for botched certain try on that one – what a shocker.
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Mauvaka and Ramos are out of the tournament for France. Tolofua and Rattez called up. France also go early on selection for their next match v Tonga. Subs tbc *Gallic shrug*:
Medard; Penaud, Vakatawa, Guitoune, Raka; Ntamack, Serin; Poirot, Chat, Slimani, Gabrillagues, Vahaamahina, Lauret, Ollivon, Alldritt
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The chances Canada made against Italy make me fear for the Italians in their next two games. Then again I also fear for Wales after just watching the second half of Fiji’s match from this morning.
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Ah, it’s like we are getting the band back together, great to read that your are here, LADOTB.
I was at the whisky tasting thing tonight, the first we’ve had since last Christmas, so it really is like we are back in the saddle, but without the kebab I used to get on the way home.
Feck me I’m hungry.
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Hello LADOAB! I saw that you were lurking the other day when you liked someone’s post – when I clicked to like it, it showed who else had, you crafty bugger!
Right, my nerves are shot and I’m in a foul mood to boot. Mrs Deebee decided to invite the neighbours over for a braai last night, which is fine, except they’re the kind of neighbours who don’t know when to go home. Which is not usually a problem, but they’re also the kind of neighbours who always pitch up with one cheap bottle of wine and then drink two or three of my lovely bottles. Which is
fineirritating when you’ve had a long week and they insist on listening to shit music to go with it. There. I’m officially a grumpy old bastard. Which is fine.I just scrolled through the list of matches that Thaum put up (thanks Thaum!) and got even grumpier because I won’t get to see a single one of them. We’re going away for the weekend with Mrs Deebee’s family (which is more than fine, they’re absolutely fabulous and more outrageous than Edina and Patsy could ever be) and won’t see any rugby at all.
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I shall be relying on the good folk of this unsinkable dinghy to keep me updated. Thaum to be known as Molly Brown from now on. Lettuce hope she avoids an iceberg though.
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Morning. Fully foul-mooded as well. Bloody Home Sharing doesn’t work on my Apple TV anymore since I changed my user id and password on both devices (obsolete email account). Works on pc but refuses to connect to tv, and it keeps sending me 6-digit 2-factor security codes to stick on the end of new password, which doesn’t work over and over again.
Looking at Apple forums it seems the problem is out there in Apple-land, and looks unfixable. I’m dependent on it for listening to music on my sound system, so does anyone know of any alternatives perhaps?
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Thauma would make a good Debbie Reynolds. Watch out, iceberg!
Good work on the ATL btw. Is being broadcast on Freesport the final insult I wonder? Drags have been ‘chosen’ 2 weeks in a row.
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@Iks – learn a musical instrument?
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*Stuffs trombone up CMW’s jacksie*
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I may, what’s been the reaction in Germany to Karel Gott’s death?
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I may? I meant Iksy.
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I has long been my ambition to be able to fart ‘The Acrobat’.
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*resists temptation to post Frank Skinner and Mr Methane youtube video*
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France have called up three players to their Rugby World Cup squad as injury replacements. The most recent additions are La Rochelle fullback Vincent Rattez and Toulon hooker Christopher Tolofua, who replace Thomas Ramos and Peato Mauvaka respectively.
Meanwhile Wesley Fofana has also been sent home with uncapped Lyon center Pierre-Louis Barassi called in his place. It makes four changes in all for France with young prop Demba Bemba also departed and replaced by Cedate Gomes Sa.
http://www.americasrugbynews.com/2019/10/04/france-call-three-injury-replacement-to-rwc/
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World Cup bad luck story – Canada wing Taylor Paris
2011 – selected for the squad as uncapped teenager. Not picked for any of Canada’s matches.
2015 – firmly established in Canada squad, injures knee on eve of tournament
2019 – makes first RWC appearance coming off the bench vs NZ. Sustains a concussion a few minutes after taking to the field, ending his involvement in the tournament.
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@TomP, passed me by I’m afraid as I’d never heard of him. I see from press reports that he is a Legend of almost Cardiffian status.
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MrIks, are you looking to stream music from a device through your tv?
I’m pretty sure you can do this with Chrome Cast, my sister in law uses it to stream netflix, youtube etc so it will work with your music library
https://store.google.com/de/product/chromecast
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I use a headphone jack to rca cable and just plug my phone straight into the amp
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Cheers Tichto, I’ll have a look. I don’t really use my iphone or headphones for music. I stream my iTunes library from my desktop mac through the tv and listen to it without headphones.
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iTunes is about to disappear with the imminent OS update: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210200
Whether that solves the issue or makes it worse I can’t tell you, but just a heads up for when you see that it’s not there.
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Wayne Barnes with a Nige level Bantz moment at the coin toss
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COS has gone a bit French with his selection:
Fullback at centre and two centres on the wings
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Plenty of talking up Italy’s chances over on the graun.
Misguided maybe? SA look a mighty powerful team.
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